Came into this morning with a wicked cough/runny nose and itchy eyes due to the air quality deteriorating at the pool. I am glad I decided not to scratch the 50 FL and deck enter the 200 FL (although I REALLY wanted to swim a good 200) because I was just too run down at this point.

50 FL - 25.22

Not a good race. Almost the same time I took my 100 FL out in yesterday. Too much breathing (every time my face was in the water I was coughing so holding my breath was a little tough at this point).

50 FR - 22.64

I was in the "three hole" on the relay. Had an OK relay start, despite a bad finish AGAIN by the person swimming in! I tried to "man up" and hold my breath despite the coughing, but my efforts fell short. I only breathed once, and BAM, it was first thing off the turn!

Total: 3000 (ish)

So I come away from this meet with 1 lifetime best out of 5 swims. Some takeaways from the meet:
1) My speed work is starting to have an effect on my racing, which is good.
2) I need to do a better job of being mentally focused when outside my comfort zone. My 200 BR was just a total lapse in concentration on all fronts, and I think letting myself check out when tired contributed to this.
3) I need to get my knee healthy again. It has really been bothering me the past two weeks, and I think I rushed too much breaststroke kick back into my training sessions too fast.

After taking a lot of time off in March, April, and May, I only had one meet this summer which showed I was WAY out of shape still! Now after 7 months of consistent training, I think I am finally back into the swing of things. I'm getting there, but I am not quite there yet! I will have high hopes for my "BIG" taper meet in early March. 11 weeks until Sectionals, which leaves 9 more weeks of hard work...time to buckle down!

I had a bad flip-turn and finish on this race. As soon as I climbed out of the water and saw the time, I wanted that race back. Frustrating to go a time you can normally do in practice on any given day!

200 BR - 2:13.38 (29.83/33.52 [1:03.35] 34.56/35.47 [1:10.03])

I faded down the stretch more than I expected. My stroke just unraveled. I think my nagging knee pain over the past few weeks is partially to blame. Not directly during the race, but the pain made me cut down my breaststroke training during the crucial pre-taper and taper period. I think I need to just use the next month to get it healthy and then work in practice on keeping my form when I am broken down...not mentally checking out of the race when it comes to the little things.

Today was definitely the toughest day of the meet for me. I swam the 100 BR and 100 FL, and due to my high seed in the breaststroke and low seed in the butterfly, I had ~ 20 minutes between events. As such, I never really warmed up for the 100 FL, so much as finished my warm down from the 100 BR and then got up to swim.

100 BR - 1:00.46 (28.43/32.03)

I have been trying to break the 1:00 barrier for 10 years now. It is beginning to seem like the speed of light: I can get close to it but never quite reach/surpass it! All three turns were poorly executed (you ever been to a pool where there isn't a "T" at the end of the pool so much as a break in the solid line and then a small dash? Always throws my stroke count/turn timing off!), which I think affected me not breaking my barrier. However, my coach pointed out I shortened up really bad in the last 12 yards.
Enough with the negatives though, I should have opened with "lifetime best". Last time I dropped time in this event was at this same meet back in '09. I was happy to still be going best times in my best events! I was a little bummed I didn't get a second swim with that time. 4 years ago, my 1:00.58 placed me 17th in prelims. Last year, that 1:00.46 would have gotten me into the B final at 16th. This year, it was only good enough for 27th. This meet got so much faster!

100 FL - 54.89 (25.58/29.31)

I was out pretty smooth, but the last 30 yards were a struggle and I felt the effects of the short turnaround. My best is from this same meet in 2009, with a 54.19.

The only race that I had today was the 50 FL on the 200 medley relay. Our breaststroker had a short stroke finish which caused me to start way late (the other alternative would have been leaving way early). My split was 24.62 but I was left wondering "what if...?"

Aside from relay duty, my individual entries for this weekend are (in order of their appearance): 100 BR, 100 FL, 50 FR, 200 BR, 50 FL. I plan to switch the 50 FL for the 200 FL, and may scratch down an extra event, I'll just see how I feel.

32x50 @ 1:00
3 - FAST (push)
1 - EZ
- I did these as odd RDs I.M.O., even RDs R.I.M.O. (so FL, FR, BK, BR, BR, BK, FR, FL). The BK/BR was nothing special, but I was never slower than 27.5 on the FR and never slower than 28.9 on the FL.

Practice got started late this evening so I did not get anywhere close to finishing the normal 4 rounds of our lactic hold set. I was happy with the sub 50 100 FL, and would have been under 23 on the 50 but I slipped on my turn. Surprised at how much speed I was able to generate given how sluggish I have felt since Saturday.

3000 yards of fast swimming with no warm down/recovery in between. This practice was really rough. on the 75s I was 42.6, 52.1, 47.9, 40.8 and on the 100s I was 54.4, 55.1, 1:06.1 (BR). The lactic hold was more like lactic hell. That set may have been one of the roughest I have done so far this season!

This was in the 3rd spot of a 400 FR relay. I probably would have been right at or even under 50 seconds, but the lead-off swimmer was going for his junior nationals cut. I was politely asked to refrain from doing my "normal" (READ: quick) relay start. I can sometimes get up to 8 tenths of a second on the start. Instead, I watched the second swimmer touch the wall and then did my wind up and dove in. I figure I spotted the field ~ 3/4 of a second with that start!

200 I.M. - 2:04.64 (26.64/32.84/35.48/29.68)

I would have liked to have been under 2:04, but I was satisfied with this swim mainly because my backstroke leg felt great and despite feeling like I was going to die, I actually brought the race home in a (for me) halfway decent free split. My breaststroke leg, however, felt (and was split) awful.

200 BR - 2:17.08 (31.13/34.57/35.20/36.18)

I suffered from a serious goggle malfunction for the entire race. Really wanted to be under 2:15, and I think I would have been if I didn't have my goggles digging into my eyes edge first off every wall and flipped backwards causing me to see stars on the last 50!

3200 yards of assorted warm up and warm down between races (I actually did 800 yards after every race because I felt so tired). I was happy with my racing given that I competed in 3 races in one short session. I also did not get much sleep last night and was on my feet all weekend because I was up in Springfield, MO coaching at the Drury Invitational and did not get home until almost midnight.